The EPA’s own supporting information shows that Trump’s Dirty Power Plan will kill 1,400 people a year by 2030. It’s a shocking fact that has, accordingly, dominated news coverage of the plan. Common sense dictates that if people found out a policy would kill thousands, they’d be less supportive of it.
But according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll released yesterday, hearing that Trump’s plan is a killer makes 22% of Americans more likely to support the policy. Apparently, blind fealty to making America great extends to killing thousands of Americans--something Trump probably understood when he “joked” about being able to murder someone and not lose political support.
A generous interpretation would be that these people don’t understand the question or don’t believe the statistic, and assume that it’s just a hippie liberal hoax. Slightly more cynical thinkers could argue that these people do believe the statistic, and simply don’t care that 1,400 others will die, assuming it won’t be them or a loved one in the coffin.
Needless to say, this is a pretty surprising finding from a highly reputable polling operation. But we’re pollyamorous, so let’s look at a different poll. This time though, it’s an unsurprising result from as biased an organization imaginable.
According to an email coal-funded organization CFACT sent to subscribers, Colorado students support clean coal by a 35% margin. This is according to a “poll” conducted by CFACT’s campus organization, which asked “Do you support the continued use of clean coal to keep electricity prices affordable, protect jobs, and help grow the Colorado economy?”
Unsurprisingly given the framing of the question, 58% of the students they asked at the Pueblo and Fort Collins campuses of Colorado State University said “Yes,” low bills and jobs and growing the economy is good.
Wow. What a perfectly worded question that totally isn’t designed to give a particular result beneficial to the group’s funders regarding the state’s imminent decision to shut down two coal plants and replace them with renewables and batteries.
While these students clearly have a thing or two to learn about proper survey design, they clearly have a handle on arguably a more important skill in today’s political climate: selling out to polluters.
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